Miller Magazine Issue: 145 January 2022

56 COVER STORY MILLER / january 2022 The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly disturbed food supply chains in the world and raised concerns re- garding food security, lack of supplies, and the bal- ance in the food market. Due to the importance of flour in our everyday diet and because it is one of the most important staple foods in the world, countries, and governments began storing enormous amounts of wheat which increased the demand dramatically and as a result caused a spike in prices. As a manufacturer, you aim to create the most op- timum supply chain for your company and ensure its continuation along all times of operation, while keep- ing your costs as low as possible and trying to man- age potential risks while at the same time maintaining customer satisfaction. But today’s supply chains of organizations have become quite complex and very interconnected. Therefore, any change happening in one area of operation can directly result in a cost hike or cost variation in another. In fact, the impacts of Covid-19 are quite extensive and have far reaching consequences in our everyday life and of course on the economy in the first place. Covid-19 as a global pandemic has triggered a com- pletely new situation of unexpected risks and opera- tional costs in the food supply chain, one amongst the very important risks that occurred and that we are still facing until today as millers are the delays in freight and their increased costs in addition to the increased wheat prices. Other impacts include slowing of the manufacturing of essential goods, key materials & in- gredients and final products, losses in national and in- ternational business, poor cash flow in the market, and significant slow in revenues growth. This new ambiguous situation arising as repercus- sions of the pandemic raised serious concerns upon food security, we saw how countries reacted to it, Chi- na for instance increased its wheat imports and stored very huge amounts of wheat, China’s wheat imports reached the highest level in more than two decades, Russia on the other hand, imposed a quota on export- ed wheat to limit farmers from exporting their crop due Covid-19 as a global pandemic has triggered a completely new situation of unexpected risks and operational costs in the food supply chain, one amongst the very important risks that occurred and that we are still facing until today as millers are the delays in freight and their increased costs in addition to the increased wheat prices. Other impacts include slowing of the manufacturing of essential goods, key materials & ingredients and final products, losses in national and international business, poor cash flow in the market, and significant slow in revenues growth. Challenges in supply chain and grain logistics Eng. Ibrahim Al-Hazaa Operations Manager Al-Hazaa Investment Group